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The amazing wonders of Viveza's U Point technology
I am excited that the amazing U Point technology of Nik Software’s Viveza, in the form of an easy-to-use editing plug-in, is now available to photographers using Aperture 2.1. My first encounter with the U Point technology was through Nikon’s Capture NX software. I was so impressed with the usefulness and practicality of this technology that I’m glad it’s now an Aperture plug-in. Having tried all of the available plug-ins so far for Aperture, I feel that Viveza will be one of the most really useful and practical tools that many photographers will love to use.
The idea behind Nik Software’s Viveza is quite simple. It implements what they call the U Point technology that allows for really easy and fast as well as precise and smooth color refinement, light adjustment and image enhancement that was previously possible only through a somewhat difficult and tedious editing process that involves a lot of layer masking or complicated selections. The U Point technology in Viveza now makes it painless to absolutely control certain portions of an image.
To use it, you first determine the area you want to work on by creating a control point directly on the image that will influence only similarly colored or characterized pixels. You then adjust and edit this area by changing its Brightness, Contrast, Hue and Saturation with the sliders. You can then further control the color by adjusting the Red, Green and Blue channels. Finally, you can adjust the level of Warmth.
Other than the ease of use, what impressed me most about this plug-in for Aperture is how fast it works. A preview of the changes are shown in an instant. This is important to me, and I would suppose, to a lot of photographers too, because I can easily and quickly refine the changes as I apply them, and as I blend them with the changes I implemented using other control points in the same photograph. And because the interface allows me to compare the edited version with the original, I am able to see how far I’ve gone with my editing, and it also gives me a sense of how far I should or can go with my editing.
So far, when using this plug-in, I’ve never encountered any issues that has been previously reported. If I were to rate this plug-in, I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5. My experience has been flawless and smooth. A 15-day trial is available for free download from Nik Software’s Viveza website.
[Note: Photo in screenshot by Dominique James of The Studio and The Playground. Copyright © 2008. All rights reserved.]
well, LightZone (from LightCrafts) used an external editor in Aperture can do far more complex corrections for much cheaper (in its "basic" version)...
So, unless plugins can work directly on raw files and store corrections as editable metada - which will come one day but is not possible at the moment - what exactly makes you prefer Viveza to LightZone?
No discussion of Viveza would be complete without a mention of the price - 250 bucks!!!! Given that it does not work the same way as a normal Aperture adjustment, but creates a giant-size Tiff file, I'm struggling to see the value over just round-tripping to NX
Although a big Aperture user, I am really very unsure about this new plug in.
As a Nikon owner I have received a free copy of Capture NX with my D3/D300. I hate Capture NX, but it does have the very excellent U-Point technology.
The cost of Viveza Plug-In is outrageous and I am not at all convinced it represents good value.
It is nice to have a Plug-In but simply by exporting a version to Capture Nx and employing U-Point there and then re-importing as necessary is a heck of a lot cheaper and although a little inelegant is not too much hassle. I have used the Viveza Plug-In and it does work well but unless they halve the price "at least" I am afraid I will not be purchasing.
I have to agree with the previous 3 comments: the U-point interface is very elegantly designed, but the lack of integration with Aperture (really just using a rendered "baked" image to work on), and the OUTRAGEOUS price (compared with NX) will be a definite no-go for many users. It should cost $49.
Viveza is slightly better implemented as a plugin for Photoshop CS3, where at least its adjustments can be brought back in as a separate adjustments layer, that can still be tweaked later (to some degree).
I know this is a blog for APERTURE users, but I think it's worth pointing out that Adobe Lightroom 2 Beta does allow for localized adjustments (infinitely editable - see my blog for a detailed review) and, if nothing else, this will probably motivate Apple to seriously consider adding a similar feature to future Aperture versions sometime soon.
Still, it is ridiculous that for Aperture 2 users, it would be cheaper to buy Lightroom, than to buy a limited-functionality plugin for Aperture...
I asked Tony Corbell, the Senior Manager Product Education & Planning of Nik Software, Inc., about the difference between Viveza for Aperture and Photoshop. He said:
"The only difference from Viveza for Aperture vs. Photoshop is that in Photoshop it can be added on a new layer or applied to the current layer. You also have the option in CS3 of using the plug in as a Smart Filter, which allows you to go back and be able to change you edits at a later date and all control points will be saved and accessible right where you had placed them. In addition, there is no Brush button for aperture since the layer functionality is different. In PS you can click on Brush when you are finished editing and the software adds a new layer and layer mask and the cursor turns into a brush tool. You can then paint in the effect you did in Viveza if you want to be precise in a given area."
Corbell also added:
"FYI, the Viveza product will be shipped for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Aperture all together. In other words, if someone buys the product for Photoshop they can also use it in Aperture. Same product key will work."
Sadly, I also agree that Viveza seems useful, but the price is decidedly gouging. What are they thinking?!
Nik's software is always on the expensive side. Their Sharpener Pro product is almost $300 as well. It's good, but IMO pretty expensive.
I'd really like to see a Viveza version that was *just* the Aperture plug-in, at a lesser price. Sure with the current price you get both versions, but basically they're kicking Aperture a bone if you pay for the Photoshop version at its premium price. Heck, it's more than I PAID for Photoshop.
Wait... if I buy Viveza, I get a working copy of the plugin for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Aperture? Really? And that is somehow going to justify the cost? Just give me the plugin for one platform at one third of the price. THAT would make more sense.
First, why would I have Photoshop and Photoshop Elements? If I have Photoshop, I have no need to use a simplified Photoshop via Elements, so having a plugin that works in both is useless.
Second, I thought the idea behind plugins in Aperture was to allow me to NOT go to Photoshop for edits such as this? So, if I edit in Aperture using this plugin, I don't need to edit in Photoshop using this plugin too.
So, that being said, if NIK is trying to justify this outrageous cost by pointing out that you get three licenses, they are just trying to deflect the fact that the price is way, way too high. As I said earlier, give me one platform at a third of the price and we might have a deal (for the Photoshop version... I refuse to buy the Aperture version with its non-editable saving).
I bought and have used this plugin and I have to agree with earlier comments that 1) it is too expensive; and 2) the integration is with Aperture (lack of nondestructive editing) is sadly missing. I find that when I need to use it, I just send the image out to Photoshop and perform the enhancements there because I have more control than the Aperture version of the plugin gives me.
I also use Lightroom, but MUCH prefer Aperture. I'm hoping that Adobe's implementation of nondestructive edits in the beta version will spur Apple and their plugin partners to create the same nondestructive plugin workflow in Aperture.
it is touch paying $150 more than Aperture 2 costed me for a plugin. Plugins should not exceed the cost of the host application in any event. but this is my opinion of course.
building on Pierre's comment, the point is that when using LightZone as an external editor, the local corrections are stored as Metadata attached to the TIFF file in Aperture. So, they remain editable at a later stage via LightZone (simply edit the modified picture from Aperture again)...
So, LightZone is by very far superior to Viveza, for a much lower cost (LZ in its "basic" version is good enough; You do not need to buy the full edition).
Why would I honestly bother putting €250 on something inferior?
I have been evaluating both Aperture 2 and CaptureNX for quite sometime and I just cannot decide which of them to buy. At first, Viveza sounded like a decisive, best of both worlds factor for me. I could have U-point selection tool right in Aperture's elegant workflow.
But what's the deal with the price, really? It costs more than CaptureNX itself!
I can do pretty much everything U-point has to offer in Shake or Gimp (the first I readily own and the latter is FREE!) although it would take a considerable amount of time and effort and the two also unfortunately do not understand NEF's . . .
I guess I am buying Aperture and will make my complex adjustments in Shake as TIFF's.